Audio System Plan

An argument you're about to hear now that you've said you're after SQ:

No rears = better SQ.

Now, i used to disagree. I used to REALLY like my rear fill. But after hearing this argument a ton of times, i decided to check it out- a full frontal fade for 2 days and I was sold. Having your sound all come from the front; for me at least; is DEFINATELY where its at. Now, since im a nice guy and like to let my buddies hear the music too heres my suggestion:

Focus on your fronts. Thats a REALLY nice amp your looking at, but its just not going to do a great job for you. You will either underpower by 60, or overpower by 20. Honestly, since you've already got the speakers I would look for a different amp. Your gunna want something to send 120-140w x 2 @ 4 ohms. Amp up your front speakers with this sucker and fade all the way forward. Leave your rear stocks attached to the stock headunit. With it faded forward, youll hear nothing from the back, but when youve got buddies back there, add a little fade to the rear and they'll have some tunes too.

The Caveat: TEST THIS OUT FOR YOURSELF! Its really personal preference if you like it really crisp (full frontal) or if you like the added volume and slight muffle from having some rears. Play around with it a few different ways and see what you like, then set your system up according to that.

If you find that you REALLY like some rear fill, then just shop around for some coaxials for the rear. Lots of good brands, and really value is key for these since fronts are what make the most difference in quality.

Honestly, I wouldnt sacrifice sub for better rears.


And thanks for the compliment, but there are quite a few on here that know far, far, far more than myself. Automaticman and Jeba come to mind. Automaticman is an audio installer by profession and has helped me out many times.

I always chime in about replacing the rears. Don't bother. Spend more on the fronts instead. Just turn the rear speakers off.

Oops! Someone already said that other than me. Kewl.

There is no need for expensive amps to get good sound. You can also select from a better front speaker that is more efficient than you choice but still sounds good. 80 watts per channel (RMS, not peak) would give plenty of overhead on most speakers. There are nice $100-150 amps that can do that just fine.

Save your money for a sub. You will need about $90 for the sub amp I just recommended in another post, about $50 for the box and $150 for a decent driver, plus about $100-$150 to install it. You do need lots of power for a sub, around 300 watts RMS, single channel.

The utter lack of information on the linked site does not really reflect well on these speakers. I don't know if they have a cast basket, what the tweeter type is, or even just how they spec the rather surprising 45 hz bottom end on these speakers. I would suspect that they are down to a pretty much inaudible -20 db at this point, and the actual 3db down point is more like 65 hz. They look like they have a cheap accordion cloth (or even paper) surround, rather than something better like foam or butyl rubber that permits more excursion and is more durable.

If you have actually heard these, and really like them, perhaps that trumps my caveats, but you should make sure you do listening tests rather than buy something online based on reputation or believe any hype, brand name, or kewl website graphics.

[quote author=Timmer412 link=topic=68153.msg1178630#msg1178630 date=1170257631]
As far as power, would I be better off bridging a 2-channel amp into the 2 ohm load for this sub?
[/quote]

You're going to pay A LOT for an amp that can bridge @ 2 ohms. Heres how it works: if an amp normaly operates @ 4 ohms, then it probably can handle 2 ohms / channel, and bridge to 4. Bridging vs nonbridge dosn't really matter- your looking for power output, regardless of how you get it (as far as I know- i could be wrong about bridge vs unbridged- someone correct me if i am). Also- even though you've got an 800 w RMS sub, dosn't mean you need to push 800 to it. Theres a range of powers that subs will operate at- If you go to this link then you can see the range graphically. It's not for your sub- so don't try and take that to be applicable; it simply conveys the idea. There really is a sweet spot for each sub, and it's usually quite a bit lower than the max. As you approach max power, you add more wear onto the sub. Notice for those I linked, they run 100-600 (bottom graphs) and the sweet-spot is around 300. So i would want to run between 300-450W on that particular sub. Im of the opinion, that 500W to that sub would be fine.

Ropo is right about one thing though- with profile, you aren't going to get a perfectly clean, 500wRMS. Im not sure how much loss profiles exhibit, but it should certainly be at least 425wRMS you get from it. Other brands like legacy or pyramid may advertise 1000W and give you 200.